It’s July 2018. A brainhack for your goals.

Here is a fun little brain hack that has been around, in various forms, for several hundred years. It has two uses: it gives you clarity on your goals and it gives you the energy to do something today.

Read this article first and then try it, I’m really interested to see how it helps you!

Sit down comfortably and close your eyes.

Imagine it’s July 2018.

Imagine the usual weather in July in the place you are, the sun and the sky.

Imagine the food that is on your table in July, the fruits or seasonal events that take place. Think of activities that usually happen at that time of the year.

In the last 6 months, the world turned and events took place. Some international scandal maybe, some old celebrities died and new stars were featured. Exciting new technology has been released and we might have found promising new ways to cure a disease. Sports were played, meetings held.

And your personal life?

What happened when you went to work? Did you like it, and did it reward you?

What about your time, how did you spend it? With purpose or unsure about your goals?

Look back at the last half year.

“I wish I had started this in January!” or “I wish I had been doing this continuously for the last months!” or “It would have been so much better to start in January than now in July!”

Maybe many of the goals you set were pushed back every week and you still haven’t done anything really.

Get riled up about all the missed opportunities. If you had started to save in January, then you would now have enough money to go on vacation. If you had taken those regularly sports classes, then your health might have improved. If you had stopped drinking soft drinks, you might have lost some pounds… if you had started earlier. If you had written every day, your story might actually be nearing completion now, instead of being on loose papers in a drawer somewhere.

And then the magic happens.

You open your eyes and look at the calendar. It actually is January again. You have just time-travelled back and given a chance to live the next months exactly like you want.

You know that you will go to the gym today, because you have seen the future in which you didn’t go and it sucked! You know that you will eat healthier, starting today. You know you need to write every day, so that future you won’t need to regret anything in July.

The time will pass anyway and it’s up to you to how it will pass.

Go forth and change the future.

This story is published in The Startup, Medium’s largest entrepreneurship publication followed by 283,454+ people.